In addition to providing batteries for the growing number of electric vehicles, the plant hopes to reduce lithium’s current carbon footprint by 80 percent.
The UK is building Europe’s first and largest lithium refinery to produce the much-sought-after material.
Demand for the mineral metal has skyrocketed in recent years as the world doubles down on the transition to renewable energy. Lithium is a key component in the manufacture of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Up to 60 percent of new car sales by 2030 will use lithium-ion batteries. The battery of a Tesla Model S, for example, currently consumes about 12 kg of lithium.
However, the boom in EV car construction means manufacturers are dependent on East Asia, including China, where 89 percent of the world’s lithium is currently refined.
The UK government has given the green light to a UK based company, Green Lithium, to build a refinery in Teesside, England, in a bid to provide a vital boost to UK car manufacturers and Europe.
“It’s the growth of battery materials that’s required to fuel the electric revolution, the fact that we need electric vehicles, the fact that we need grid storage and home storage is producing a huge demand for battery chemicals. in Europe and we believe that by 2030 we will need around 800,000 tons per year,” said Sean Sargent, CEO of Green Lithium.
‘A big dividend in carbon reduction’
The plant will start operations in 2027 and is expected to have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons of lithium battery chemicals, which is enough lithium to provide batteries for one million EV car batteries, according to the company.
According to Green Lithium, the refinery in Teesside will import spodumene, a hard rock mineral, from Western Australia and process it at the facility to ultimately extract the lithium and refine it into a chemical that can be used in batteries.
However, lithium mining is known to cause air and soil pollution.
Green Lithium says it plans to reduce the carbon footprint of lithium refining by using low-energy processes, renewable electricity, hydrogen gas, and carbon capture technology to achieve an 80 percent lower carbon footprint than traditional refineries.
“So the small price you pay to ship the material to the UK is fully offset by the benefits of the decarbonisation process we use in the UK,” Sargent said.
“So right away we’re starting with a big dividend in carbon reduction, but we’re also producing our chemicals sustainably,” he added.
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